September 3, 2023 • 20 mins
Countyfairgrounds and CoolKay pre-fair interview of the Kansas State Fair and Bryan Schulz - General Manager..... we talk about what is old and new and not to be missed at this years fair..... take a listen and find out what Bryan's favorite fair food is.....
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Episode Transcript
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(00:08):
Hi, I'm Karen from County FairgroundsCounty Fairgrounds dot Net. Welcome to today's
podcast. Good afternoon, Kansas StateFair. This so Brian County Fairgrounds in
Cool. Okay. Here, Hi, mister Brian. You're the general You're
the general manager of the Kansas StateFair. Yes, ma'am, I am.
How are you today? Huh?Busy? Normal? And I'm sure
(00:29):
you are. I hear you,I hear you. Yep. It is
crazy, crazy time. Okay.So your fair stairs on September eight and
runs through the seventeen. How manyyears old is this fair? One hundred
and ten? We started in thirteenand you were there. Excuse me,
Yes, I was, I was. I was the original general manager.
Yes, okay, and then yougot me beat. Okay, all right,
(00:56):
go ahead. I've been with ourfair for two years now, so
this will be my third fare.Okay, all right. So one of
the first questions I asked at asenior, which is important to me,
is how's the parking situation. Parkingis good. We have a full dedicated
handicap accessible lot on the north sideof the grounds which is easily accessible,
(01:21):
and on top of that, wehave invested just to shy of one point
five million dollars an asphalt. Soit makes getting around if either a wheely
cart or a wheelchair or whatever itis to get around for seniors, We've
got that taken care of. Okay, all right. So is the carnival
(01:45):
included in the price of the editiing, No, Nope, that's that's a
separate ticket. Okay, all right, So if I was coming into this
stair with a whole bunch of littlekids under the age of twelve, what
would you say I should do?First? Well, first of all,
you should definitely work through our EducationDepartment and go through the Kansas Largest Classroom.
(02:07):
First off, you'll get some admissionticket discounts, So if you're bringing
in that many kids, that wouldbe great, and that will give you
an opportunity also to learn about Kansas. And then also going over to our
Education Center, which gives the opportunityfor students and parents and teachers and all
that kind of stuff to get ahands on on education and learn lots of
(02:30):
different things about all the things atKansas. We also have a it's called
Doctor Goddard's Lab, which is theydo some live rocketry demonstrations on a daily
basis. This is in conjunction withthe Cosmosphere, which is a local museum
(02:50):
here in town that has a lotof the artifacts from the Space Race and
all kinds of really cool stuff.Yeah. I was gonna say, you're
in the middle of the country.It seems a little different, Okay,
but that sounds like fun. Soundslike fun. And then also we have
our Birthing Center where every year wehave a sow that we breed, and
(03:14):
last year I believe we had likefrom the first style, we had about
twenty eight piglets born, and wealso had a second sow that had about
twenty two. So it's a greatopportunity for the kids to see that.
Plus we have lambs and all kindsof animals being born during the fair.
Over there. We also have amilking parlor where the kids can go out
(03:35):
and watch our dairy farmers milk thecows on a daily basis and learn about
that, as well as Aggreland,which is located in our part of Kansas
area where kids kind of learn wheretheir food comes from and the clothes that
they were. Okay, all right, so fine, a senior coming in
through this gate again, where doI go first? Well, it all
(03:58):
depends on if you want to seedemonstrations or we've got a humongous quilt demonstration.
We've got a lot of arts andcrafts demonstration in our domestic Arts building.
On a couple of times during fairtime we will be having bingo for
them just to sit down and relaxa little bit. Also again the birthing
(04:21):
center, the barns, all thatkind of stuff. But we do have
lots of vendors as well on thegrounds. That sounds like inside and outside
yep, all right. What aboutrestroom facilities? So do you have a
lot of them? Are they handicappedaccessible? Yes? Yes, and yes
when they come in that that ifthey come in the Gate five area where
(04:45):
I said the handicap accessible parking isjust down the road just a just a
short bit, there is handicap accessiblerestrooms that all of our restrooms on grounds
are handicap accessible. Okay, whatabout grounds X We have a ton of
those as well. It just dependson what your what's your favorite is In
(05:09):
our what we call Gotschalk Park,which is one of our main entrance parks.
This year, we have I FlipI Flip as an aerial acrobatics show.
Uh they will do anywhere from threeto four shows a day, depending
on the day it is, wherethey'll do aerial acrobats up up on the
in the air, and then theyhave a it's called a tramp wall where
(05:31):
they jump off at the top ofthis wall onto a trampoline and then jump
back into like windows or kind ofdo entertainment things. They also have what
they call a speed tramp, whichis a like a forty to fifty foot
long trampoline that they do cartwheels andflips and acrobatics on that. We also
have on our free stages we haveRon Diamond, who's a hypnotist who has
(05:56):
got a huge drawing. The secondSaturday, we have Victor Trevino who is
a Elvis impersonator. On our People'sBank and Trust Arena stage, we have
Kenny Ahern who is a family varietyentertainer who does shows three to four times
a day, comic routines, jugglingall that kind of stuff. We also
(06:18):
have Vank Trollyquist. And our bigthing is we've got two main stages,
our People's Bank and Trust and theLoan Corporation Free Stage at Lake Talbot.
Both of those have entertainment going onall day long. It is a lot
of it is Kansas based entertainment.So we've got Christian groups, we have
(06:38):
kids, we have adults, wehave acapella, we have full bands,
we have just about anything you canimagine on there. Okay, all right,
so the kids are going to headtowards the carnival. What's the carnival's
name this year? The carnival isNorth American Midway Entertainment or name. Okay?
And what kind of kids drives thatthey got. They have a very
(07:00):
large selection of kids rides. That'sone thing that we really push with them.
They've got everything from your ferrist wheelsto your marrigrounds to your spinning teddy
bears or apples. Depends on whatthey bring in. You know, they've
got some. They've got the games, but they have a very large selection
of kitty rides. Okay. Andrights for older like people too. What's
(07:21):
that? Rights for older people too? Oh? Absolutely? I mean,
like I said, our ferrist wheels. We do two big ferris wheels on
the grounds. If you like togo up on a ferris wheel, we've
got those. If you like thehigh speed roller, coasters. We've got
those. So we've got everything fromthe the carousel to some of the extreme
(07:44):
rides that come here at the fair. Okay, let's talk about fair food.
We kind of fair food. Wegot what's old, what's new,
and what's great. I'll be veryhonest with you. We're still trying to
get the newest, ladiest, andgreatest out of our vendors. Some of
them are very apprehensive about us gettingthat list before they get here because they
want to showcase it. But Iknow that there is some So we have
(08:09):
everything from the healthy side to whatyou would probably want at the fair.
We have Pronto Pups, which areKansas based corn dogs. They're made just
a little bit different, have alittle bit of sweeter taste. I grew
up in North Dakota and I havebeen a corn dog connoisseur, so when
I got down here, I tastedit. It is a little bit different.
(08:33):
They also do for somebody that wantsto do some more healthy we do
have cucumber stuffed with either like acream cheese or like a chicken salad or
something like that. And everything elsein between, from your funnel cakes to
your popcorn to your burgers. Oneof our establishments. It's called Carrie's Beer
(08:54):
Garden, which is a family friendlyfacility. She's bringing in burnt and burgers,
burnt and fries, a wagu hotdog that is stuffed in a cheese
bun, and we got a chanceto taste that and they're all amazing.
We have pizza, we have Chinese, we have I'm just trying to think
(09:18):
of some of the other unique ones. We have our Ambucks building, which
has homemade cookies and ice cream.We also have on grounds we have the
Dairy Bar, which is the KansasState University's dairy that makes homemade ice cream,
and they have a location down atthe grandstand where they have all different
(09:41):
flavors of ice cream. What amI missing? I mean, it's it's
just about anything you can imagine outhere. And what's your favorite fear of
food? I always ask that question. My favorite fair food is probably going
to be either cheese curds or thePronto pup. But I definitely eat my
way around the grounds after ten days. Yeah, Hey, mister fairman,
(10:05):
Hey, mister fairmanager. You gotany kids. I have two adult kids,
Oh, but they have been raisedin the fair industry, so my
youngest or my oldest daughter started workingwith me at age nine and is now
the director of Entertainment and Events atthe Nebraska State Fair, which is going
on right now. And my youngestdaughter is twenty. Oh okay, I
(10:31):
know a fair rat. What isDylan's Dollar Day. Dylan's Dollar Day is
an opportunity for people to get ininexpensively if you are a Dylan's card holder,
which is a plus card. It'sone of those little plastic little key
chain holders. If you're one ofthose, you bring that to the front
gate and you get in for freeone person on a card. If you're
(10:54):
not a Dylan's card holder, it'sa dollar to get in and as far
as Carna rides that day, theywill be able to buy an all day
long wristband for twenty five dollars.Okay, all right, so let's talk
about evening entertainment. Get for eveningentertainment. Well, we have a very
(11:16):
large concert series that takes place onthe grounds. Now, these are all
ticketed items. As I stated before, we have the two free stages,
and they do have things going untilprobably seven eight o'clock at night. But
if you're into the big concert series, Friday, September eighth, starting at
seven thirty, we have Need toBreathe. Saturday the ninth is Carly Pearson
(11:39):
Megan Moroney. On Sunday is ourcomic Night and we have Rob Schneider with
Byron Kennedy. Monday night is oneof our two dirt nights. We do
a demolition derby in the grandstand.Tuesday Night is the twelfth. Is Cooper
Allen, who is a new andup and coming TikTok artist and he is
(12:03):
His opener is Frank Ray, anothernew and up and coming country artist.
Wednesday night is always our Christian night. We have Ann Wilson opening up for
Matthew West and we're actually doing somethingreally interesting this year is we have created
a State Fair Choir that will besinging along with Matthew West with one of
his brand new songs that's not evenout yet, so that's kind of a
(12:26):
neat thing. Thursday night we havean event called Hairball. Hair Ball is
an eighties tribute band out of theMinneapolis, Minnesota area. They have two
lead singers, one of them isalways off stage getting ready. So if
you're into kiss and you like andyou want to hear some of their music.
Gene Simmons actually comes out on thestage. The lead singer is dressed
(12:48):
as Gene Simmons and does four songswhile the other artist is in the back.
And you can have like Freddie Mercury, Prince Twisted Sister, any of
the eighties rock music that's about toour long show. We have decided this
year to diversify our entertainment and welooked into we have a fairly large Hispanic
(13:09):
population here in Hutchinson and the surroundingarea. So we went and booked an
act called Lafire Okanaga and they areregional Hispanic band out of Mexico, and
we're very excited about that. We'vegot a lot of really good compliments about
being able to bring them in andhave that. Friday Night is our pop
(13:31):
night. We have a young gentlemanby the name of Disco Line who is
an electronic dance music DJ and heis opening up for Jerule. Jarul is
a late nineties early two thousands popand then we close out the State Fair
on Sunday at four o'clock with ourMonster Truck show. Oh okay, I
(13:52):
was wondering where that was gonna comein I've noticed you've got all kinds of
twenty twenty three, especially on thewebsite. Do you want to talk a
would about any of those? Uh? What t tell me a little bit
more. What what do you meanby special events? Well, you've got
mutton busting, I see that.Oh oh, yes, okay, I'm
(14:13):
gonna say I mean, yeah,We've got a lot of different things that
will go on during fair time too. Yes, mutton Busting is on Friday
night, and this is an opportunityfor the young little ones to get out
there and write a sheep and thisyou have to be pre qualified at another
fair in the state of Kansas tocome in. We also have an event.
(14:37):
It's it was new in twenty twentyand it's our Championship Livestock Show.
Here is where we work with SpecialOlympics athletes and we pair them with a
four h or an FF a youngstudent and give them the opportunity to show
an animal, either a sheep,a goat, or a cattle. And
(15:00):
it's just a very short time ofhands on training, but they are able
to get in the arena and walkaround with their animal and show it and
they're judged and it's a great event. Cargill is our major sponsor, and
it's actually continued to grow year afteryear. We also bring in our mounted
shooting and barrel racing event, andthen our biggest, probably special event on
(15:24):
the grounds is our Grand Drive,which is the first weekend which brings in
hundreds of kids from all over Kansasand other areas to show their animals.
And then on Saturday night we havethe final where the top animals come into
the into the arena on green chipsand then they're judged, and then the
(15:46):
top animal is awarded that night,and then they do have a gala afterwards
to kind of close that out.Okay, so do you know what your
attendance is? Last year we werejust shy of three hundred and sixty thousand
people. We didn't have a fairin twenty twenty, twenty twenty two.
Our twenty twenty one, when Igot here, our attendance was about two
(16:08):
hundred and seventy eight two hundred seventynine thousand. We jumped up to just
three sixteen. Our average attendance isanywhere from three twenty five to three hundred
and fifty thousand. Okay, thatsounds like a lot of people. Hey,
so what's the Celebrity Grapes stop.That sounds interesting that, yes,
(16:29):
it is. It is. It'sa fun event where we get celebrities to
come in and we actually put grapesinto If you remember the old sitcom of
Laverne Laverne is Sally Lucia Ball whereher and Ethel got in and they were
stomping grapes, and that's basically whatit is is there, they get in
and they do a competition on howfast they can stomp them. Oh boy,
(16:52):
I wouldn't want to have to cleanit up. Yeah, it's out
on the grass, so we havea pretty pretty easy thing there. A
couple of the other things that wedo. We do a Pronto pup eating
contest on the last Sunday. Thisis this is quite an event. You
start out with what one of thelarge like a foot long pronto pup as
your initial, and then you gointo the smaller ones and I believe last
(17:15):
year it was the large one pluseight small ones in about ten minutes.
That sounds like heartburn to me.Yeah, yeah, it does to me
too. Okay, So, misterfair manager, this is the Kansas State
Fairgrounds. They have other events goingon during the year. Do you know
what's coming up after this year?Yes, we do about anywhere from five
(17:38):
hundred and fifty to six hundred otherevents on the grounds. And right after
Fair, actually two weeks, wehave the Kansas Junior Livestock Show, which
is almost as large as our GrandDrive during fair time, so that's going
to be a big part. Wealso have a big the All American Livestock
Show that will be coming in October. And then on on a weekly basis,
(18:03):
we do anywhere from two to eightevents on the grounds, from weddings,
Kincinetta's, flea markets, you know, flat floor shows like guns and
knives and or you know type thosetype of things we do, Conventions,
we do all that kind of stuff. So lots of other events coming up
(18:26):
this year already. Okay, soundslike a lot of fun to me.
Okay, well, is there anythingelse you want to add? You know,
if you are planning your trip,the best thing you can do is
go out to our website Kansas StateFair dot com, and there's going to
be an area that says plan yourvisit. That is probably going to be
your best opportunity to see all thefun stuff going on. And all the
(18:48):
information that you need from our buildinghours to you know, we do.
When you were talking about accessibility,we do have trams and trolleys. We
have trolleys that bring people in fromthe parking lots and then once they get
in they can jump on one ofthe trams that goes throughout most of the
grounds and make stops quite often,and that runs throughout the day, so
(19:10):
that gets people into a lot ofdifferent areas and just lots of other free
stuff from our State Fair railroad toour big yellow slide to our skyride that
you can go over the top ofthe ground. So just lots and lots
of stuff and that's all could befound under our planning your visit. Well,
a lot of people don't use theinternet, believe the internet. Yep,
(19:33):
yeah, oh I agree, Iknow. Yep. Do you have
anything to hand them hand them whenthey come in the gate. Yes,
we do have a visitors guide thatlays everything out. Just about everything we've
talked about is in there, anda daily schedule. Obviously having to print
that up a little bit, someof the things are subject to change,
but yeah, everything is in herethat somebody would need to know. Okay,
(19:56):
sounds good and sounds like a greattime. I've enjoyed talking to you,
and I hope you have a greatbe Fair. Thank you very much.
You have a wonderful day too.Thank you.
Hi, I'm Karen from County FairgroundsCounty Fairgrounds dot Net. Welcome to today's
podcast. Good afternoon, Kansas StateFair. This so Brian County Fairgrounds in
Cool. Okay. Here, Hi, mister Brian. You're the general You're
the general manager of the Kansas StateFair. Yes, ma'am, I am.
How are you today? Huh?Busy? Normal? And I'm sure
(00:29):
you are. I hear you,I hear you. Yep. It is
crazy, crazy time. Okay.So your fair stairs on September eight and
runs through the seventeen. How manyyears old is this fair? One hundred
and ten? We started in thirteenand you were there. Excuse me,
Yes, I was, I was. I was the original general manager.
Yes, okay, and then yougot me beat. Okay, all right,
(00:56):
go ahead. I've been with ourfair for two years now, so
this will be my third fare.Okay, all right. So one of
the first questions I asked at asenior, which is important to me,
is how's the parking situation. Parkingis good. We have a full dedicated
handicap accessible lot on the north sideof the grounds which is easily accessible,
(01:21):
and on top of that, wehave invested just to shy of one point
five million dollars an asphalt. Soit makes getting around if either a wheely
cart or a wheelchair or whatever itis to get around for seniors, We've
got that taken care of. Okay, all right. So is the carnival
(01:45):
included in the price of the editiing, No, Nope, that's that's a
separate ticket. Okay, all right, So if I was coming into this
stair with a whole bunch of littlekids under the age of twelve, what
would you say I should do?First? Well, first of all,
you should definitely work through our EducationDepartment and go through the Kansas Largest Classroom.
(02:07):
First off, you'll get some admissionticket discounts, So if you're bringing
in that many kids, that wouldbe great, and that will give you
an opportunity also to learn about Kansas. And then also going over to our
Education Center, which gives the opportunityfor students and parents and teachers and all
that kind of stuff to get ahands on on education and learn lots of
(02:30):
different things about all the things atKansas. We also have a it's called
Doctor Goddard's Lab, which is theydo some live rocketry demonstrations on a daily
basis. This is in conjunction withthe Cosmosphere, which is a local museum
(02:50):
here in town that has a lotof the artifacts from the Space Race and
all kinds of really cool stuff.Yeah. I was gonna say, you're
in the middle of the country.It seems a little different, Okay,
but that sounds like fun. Soundslike fun. And then also we have
our Birthing Center where every year wehave a sow that we breed, and
(03:14):
last year I believe we had likefrom the first style, we had about
twenty eight piglets born, and wealso had a second sow that had about
twenty two. So it's a greatopportunity for the kids to see that.
Plus we have lambs and all kindsof animals being born during the fair.
Over there. We also have amilking parlor where the kids can go out
(03:35):
and watch our dairy farmers milk thecows on a daily basis and learn about
that, as well as Aggreland,which is located in our part of Kansas
area where kids kind of learn wheretheir food comes from and the clothes that
they were. Okay, all right, so fine, a senior coming in
through this gate again, where doI go first? Well, it all
(03:58):
depends on if you want to seedemonstrations or we've got a humongous quilt demonstration.
We've got a lot of arts andcrafts demonstration in our domestic Arts building.
On a couple of times during fairtime we will be having bingo for
them just to sit down and relaxa little bit. Also again the birthing
(04:21):
center, the barns, all thatkind of stuff. But we do have
lots of vendors as well on thegrounds. That sounds like inside and outside
yep, all right. What aboutrestroom facilities? So do you have a
lot of them? Are they handicappedaccessible? Yes? Yes, and yes
when they come in that that ifthey come in the Gate five area where
(04:45):
I said the handicap accessible parking isjust down the road just a just a
short bit, there is handicap accessiblerestrooms that all of our restrooms on grounds
are handicap accessible. Okay, whatabout grounds X We have a ton of
those as well. It just dependson what your what's your favorite is In
(05:09):
our what we call Gotschalk Park,which is one of our main entrance parks.
This year, we have I FlipI Flip as an aerial acrobatics show.
Uh they will do anywhere from threeto four shows a day, depending
on the day it is, wherethey'll do aerial acrobats up up on the
in the air, and then theyhave a it's called a tramp wall where
(05:31):
they jump off at the top ofthis wall onto a trampoline and then jump
back into like windows or kind ofdo entertainment things. They also have what
they call a speed tramp, whichis a like a forty to fifty foot
long trampoline that they do cartwheels andflips and acrobatics on that. We also
have on our free stages we haveRon Diamond, who's a hypnotist who has
(05:56):
got a huge drawing. The secondSaturday, we have Victor Trevino who is
a Elvis impersonator. On our People'sBank and Trust Arena stage, we have
Kenny Ahern who is a family varietyentertainer who does shows three to four times
a day, comic routines, jugglingall that kind of stuff. We also
(06:18):
have Vank Trollyquist. And our bigthing is we've got two main stages,
our People's Bank and Trust and theLoan Corporation Free Stage at Lake Talbot.
Both of those have entertainment going onall day long. It is a lot
of it is Kansas based entertainment.So we've got Christian groups, we have
(06:38):
kids, we have adults, wehave acapella, we have full bands,
we have just about anything you canimagine on there. Okay, all right,
so the kids are going to headtowards the carnival. What's the carnival's
name this year? The carnival isNorth American Midway Entertainment or name. Okay?
And what kind of kids drives thatthey got. They have a very
(07:00):
large selection of kids rides. That'sone thing that we really push with them.
They've got everything from your ferrist wheelsto your marrigrounds to your spinning teddy
bears or apples. Depends on whatthey bring in. You know, they've
got some. They've got the games, but they have a very large selection
of kitty rides. Okay. Andrights for older like people too. What's
(07:21):
that? Rights for older people too? Oh? Absolutely? I mean,
like I said, our ferrist wheels. We do two big ferris wheels on
the grounds. If you like togo up on a ferris wheel, we've
got those. If you like thehigh speed roller, coasters. We've got
those. So we've got everything fromthe the carousel to some of the extreme
(07:44):
rides that come here at the fair. Okay, let's talk about fair food.
We kind of fair food. Wegot what's old, what's new,
and what's great. I'll be veryhonest with you. We're still trying to
get the newest, ladiest, andgreatest out of our vendors. Some of
them are very apprehensive about us gettingthat list before they get here because they
want to showcase it. But Iknow that there is some So we have
(08:09):
everything from the healthy side to whatyou would probably want at the fair.
We have Pronto Pups, which areKansas based corn dogs. They're made just
a little bit different, have alittle bit of sweeter taste. I grew
up in North Dakota and I havebeen a corn dog connoisseur, so when
I got down here, I tastedit. It is a little bit different.
(08:33):
They also do for somebody that wantsto do some more healthy we do
have cucumber stuffed with either like acream cheese or like a chicken salad or
something like that. And everything elsein between, from your funnel cakes to
your popcorn to your burgers. Oneof our establishments. It's called Carrie's Beer
(08:54):
Garden, which is a family friendlyfacility. She's bringing in burnt and burgers,
burnt and fries, a wagu hotdog that is stuffed in a cheese
bun, and we got a chanceto taste that and they're all amazing.
We have pizza, we have Chinese, we have I'm just trying to think
(09:18):
of some of the other unique ones. We have our Ambucks building, which
has homemade cookies and ice cream.We also have on grounds we have the
Dairy Bar, which is the KansasState University's dairy that makes homemade ice cream,
and they have a location down atthe grandstand where they have all different
(09:41):
flavors of ice cream. What amI missing? I mean, it's it's
just about anything you can imagine outhere. And what's your favorite fear of
food? I always ask that question. My favorite fair food is probably going
to be either cheese curds or thePronto pup. But I definitely eat my
way around the grounds after ten days. Yeah, Hey, mister fairman,
(10:05):
Hey, mister fairmanager. You gotany kids. I have two adult kids,
Oh, but they have been raisedin the fair industry, so my
youngest or my oldest daughter started workingwith me at age nine and is now
the director of Entertainment and Events atthe Nebraska State Fair, which is going
on right now. And my youngestdaughter is twenty. Oh okay, I
(10:31):
know a fair rat. What isDylan's Dollar Day. Dylan's Dollar Day is
an opportunity for people to get ininexpensively if you are a Dylan's card holder,
which is a plus card. It'sone of those little plastic little key
chain holders. If you're one ofthose, you bring that to the front
gate and you get in for freeone person on a card. If you're
(10:54):
not a Dylan's card holder, it'sa dollar to get in and as far
as Carna rides that day, theywill be able to buy an all day
long wristband for twenty five dollars.Okay, all right, so let's talk
about evening entertainment. Get for eveningentertainment. Well, we have a very
(11:16):
large concert series that takes place onthe grounds. Now, these are all
ticketed items. As I stated before, we have the two free stages,
and they do have things going untilprobably seven eight o'clock at night. But
if you're into the big concert series, Friday, September eighth, starting at
seven thirty, we have Need toBreathe. Saturday the ninth is Carly Pearson
(11:39):
Megan Moroney. On Sunday is ourcomic Night and we have Rob Schneider with
Byron Kennedy. Monday night is oneof our two dirt nights. We do
a demolition derby in the grandstand.Tuesday Night is the twelfth. Is Cooper
Allen, who is a new andup and coming TikTok artist and he is
(12:03):
His opener is Frank Ray, anothernew and up and coming country artist.
Wednesday night is always our Christian night. We have Ann Wilson opening up for
Matthew West and we're actually doing somethingreally interesting this year is we have created
a State Fair Choir that will besinging along with Matthew West with one of
his brand new songs that's not evenout yet, so that's kind of a
(12:26):
neat thing. Thursday night we havean event called Hairball. Hair Ball is
an eighties tribute band out of theMinneapolis, Minnesota area. They have two
lead singers, one of them isalways off stage getting ready. So if
you're into kiss and you like andyou want to hear some of their music.
Gene Simmons actually comes out on thestage. The lead singer is dressed
(12:48):
as Gene Simmons and does four songswhile the other artist is in the back.
And you can have like Freddie Mercury, Prince Twisted Sister, any of
the eighties rock music that's about toour long show. We have decided this
year to diversify our entertainment and welooked into we have a fairly large Hispanic
(13:09):
population here in Hutchinson and the surroundingarea. So we went and booked an
act called Lafire Okanaga and they areregional Hispanic band out of Mexico, and
we're very excited about that. We'vegot a lot of really good compliments about
being able to bring them in andhave that. Friday Night is our pop
(13:31):
night. We have a young gentlemanby the name of Disco Line who is
an electronic dance music DJ and heis opening up for Jerule. Jarul is
a late nineties early two thousands popand then we close out the State Fair
on Sunday at four o'clock with ourMonster Truck show. Oh okay, I
(13:52):
was wondering where that was gonna comein I've noticed you've got all kinds of
twenty twenty three, especially on thewebsite. Do you want to talk a
would about any of those? Uh? What t tell me a little bit
more. What what do you meanby special events? Well, you've got
mutton busting, I see that.Oh oh, yes, okay, I'm
(14:13):
gonna say I mean, yeah,We've got a lot of different things that
will go on during fair time too. Yes, mutton Busting is on Friday
night, and this is an opportunityfor the young little ones to get out
there and write a sheep and thisyou have to be pre qualified at another
fair in the state of Kansas tocome in. We also have an event.
(14:37):
It's it was new in twenty twentyand it's our Championship Livestock Show.
Here is where we work with SpecialOlympics athletes and we pair them with a
four h or an FF a youngstudent and give them the opportunity to show
an animal, either a sheep,a goat, or a cattle. And
(15:00):
it's just a very short time ofhands on training, but they are able
to get in the arena and walkaround with their animal and show it and
they're judged and it's a great event. Cargill is our major sponsor, and
it's actually continued to grow year afteryear. We also bring in our mounted
shooting and barrel racing event, andthen our biggest, probably special event on
(15:24):
the grounds is our Grand Drive,which is the first weekend which brings in
hundreds of kids from all over Kansasand other areas to show their animals.
And then on Saturday night we havethe final where the top animals come into
the into the arena on green chipsand then they're judged, and then the
(15:46):
top animal is awarded that night,and then they do have a gala afterwards
to kind of close that out.Okay, so do you know what your
attendance is? Last year we werejust shy of three hundred and sixty thousand
people. We didn't have a fairin twenty twenty, twenty twenty two.
Our twenty twenty one, when Igot here, our attendance was about two
(16:08):
hundred and seventy eight two hundred seventynine thousand. We jumped up to just
three sixteen. Our average attendance isanywhere from three twenty five to three hundred
and fifty thousand. Okay, thatsounds like a lot of people. Hey,
so what's the Celebrity Grapes stop.That sounds interesting that, yes,
(16:29):
it is. It is. It'sa fun event where we get celebrities to
come in and we actually put grapesinto If you remember the old sitcom of
Laverne Laverne is Sally Lucia Ball whereher and Ethel got in and they were
stomping grapes, and that's basically whatit is is there, they get in
and they do a competition on howfast they can stomp them. Oh boy,
(16:52):
I wouldn't want to have to cleanit up. Yeah, it's out
on the grass, so we havea pretty pretty easy thing there. A
couple of the other things that wedo. We do a Pronto pup eating
contest on the last Sunday. Thisis this is quite an event. You
start out with what one of thelarge like a foot long pronto pup as
your initial, and then you gointo the smaller ones and I believe last
(17:15):
year it was the large one pluseight small ones in about ten minutes.
That sounds like heartburn to me.Yeah, yeah, it does to me
too. Okay, So, misterfair manager, this is the Kansas State
Fairgrounds. They have other events goingon during the year. Do you know
what's coming up after this year?Yes, we do about anywhere from five
(17:38):
hundred and fifty to six hundred otherevents on the grounds. And right after
Fair, actually two weeks, wehave the Kansas Junior Livestock Show, which
is almost as large as our GrandDrive during fair time, so that's going
to be a big part. Wealso have a big the All American Livestock
Show that will be coming in October. And then on on a weekly basis,
(18:03):
we do anywhere from two to eightevents on the grounds, from weddings,
Kincinetta's, flea markets, you know, flat floor shows like guns and
knives and or you know type thosetype of things we do, Conventions,
we do all that kind of stuff. So lots of other events coming up
(18:26):
this year already. Okay, soundslike a lot of fun to me.
Okay, well, is there anythingelse you want to add? You know,
if you are planning your trip,the best thing you can do is
go out to our website Kansas StateFair dot com, and there's going to
be an area that says plan yourvisit. That is probably going to be
your best opportunity to see all thefun stuff going on. And all the
(18:48):
information that you need from our buildinghours to you know, we do.
When you were talking about accessibility,we do have trams and trolleys. We
have trolleys that bring people in fromthe parking lots and then once they get
in they can jump on one ofthe trams that goes throughout most of the
grounds and make stops quite often,and that runs throughout the day, so
(19:10):
that gets people into a lot ofdifferent areas and just lots of other free
stuff from our State Fair railroad toour big yellow slide to our skyride that
you can go over the top ofthe ground. So just lots and lots
of stuff and that's all could befound under our planning your visit. Well,
a lot of people don't use theinternet, believe the internet. Yep,
(19:33):
yeah, oh I agree, Iknow. Yep. Do you have
anything to hand them hand them whenthey come in the gate. Yes,
we do have a visitors guide thatlays everything out. Just about everything we've
talked about is in there, anda daily schedule. Obviously having to print
that up a little bit, someof the things are subject to change,
but yeah, everything is in herethat somebody would need to know. Okay,
(19:56):
sounds good and sounds like a greattime. I've enjoyed talking to you,
and I hope you have a greatbe Fair. Thank you very much.
You have a wonderful day too.Thank you.
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